How Is Technology Helping The Rewards Space The e-revolution has given freedom to HR from administrative work to focus more on strategies to support the company business

Technology is dramatically changing the face of HR functions. It is transforming how people work and thus demanding a fundamentally different HR strategy .In today's day and age, technology has become the part and parcel of the workplace. The face of HR is often a portal these days, rather than a person. HR is becoming more automotive and evolving into a more technology based profession because organizations need to streamline HR processes. The e-revolution has given freedom to HR from administrative work to focus more on strategies to support the company business. The role of HR is undergoing a major transformation due to evolution of technology. The integration of technology in HR has not only made it a great source of efficiency and transparency but also helped companies to make strategic people decisions. Almost all the firms provide universal access to HR services through technology and web based applications these days to improve their services. The ERP providers like SAP, Oracle, Workday and many more are providing integrated end-to-end HR suite. With the expanding workforce, leveraging technology has become the need of the day rather than just a tick in the box. Technology is playing a major role in employee rewards, recognition, incentives and engagement. The advent of tech-backed rewards help companies make sure that systems and procedures are maintained seamlessly for an effective delivery of employee value proposition.

The way organizations used to appreciate and recognize their employees is evolving into new, dynamic formats. Old models like keeping a personal note on employees' desk or stop by the employee's desk to convey your appreciation are falling away. Technology is giving both providers and organizations an opportunity to grow and revisit the underlying ideas about how reward and recognition work.

Let's see how technology has changes the reward and recognition space of organization:

1. From passive to engaged:

Recognition is not only just a manger driven activity but should also encompass and involve all the employees of the organizations. Technology is the most viable way to achieve the main objective of organizations, i.e.to improve the engagement and satisfaction level of employees.

2. Social media connectivity:

Every employee love to be recognized socially in front of their friends, family and coworkers. Technology helps organizations and employees to celebrate their success with everyone.

3. Infrastructure & Security

In today's environment data security is paramount. Great IT infrastructure includes complete hardware, software and network resources necessary to operate and manage your recognition and rewards programs. Technology has guaranteed performance, data integrity and data privacy which is critical to your business.

4. Single Sign On:

It is very difficult to retain each and every password and no one even likes to remember them. With the help of technology, SSO provides easy access to rewards and recognition platform seamlessly integrated with your company intranet site. It makes the manager and HR free from attending calls and emails regarding login and password.

5 . Accessibility:

With the help of technology, employees can access the reward and recognition platform at anytime from anywhere. There is no need to go personally from one desk to other or from one place to other.

6. Configurability and customization:

Configurability permits adding existing program components to reward and recognition programs when you need them, as easy as plug and play. And customization gives you flexibility to adjust for the unique design elements and features you need for your people and recognition strategy. This can be done very easily through technology.

7. Content management

With the help of technology, it is easy to update the content as often and as easily as possible. This freedom and flexibility minimize vendor dependence and allows for all digital content whether text, multimedia or other files types to be modified as per requirement.

8. Data Integration

Technology enables successful data integration between vendor and the client system. It makes the exchange of information secure, automated and easy to upload.

9. Instant Recognition

Through technology, recognition is very quick and instant. Managers can give spot rewards and immediately recognize employees with the help of technology. . As per WorldatWork report, 76% of organizations are offering the spot award and believe it to be the second most important program in R&R solutions. With the appreciation via spot awards, there is 54% increase in employee engagement, 48% increase in motivation and 51% increase in employee's satisfaction

Using technology for reward and recognition today offers numerous benefits like-

Facilitating integration with business operations

Recognition is becoming an increasingly more important aspect of business productivity, and its scope and application is rapidly evolving to include increased customization, personalization, and accessibility. As organizations apply technology across all aspects of their operations, they are including recognition in the effort. In addition, executives no longer invest in employee recognition and engagement merely because it's the right thing to do; instead, they need to see the impact recognition has on the business. With technology, they can identify specific opportunities that offer clear recommendations on where and how to close performance gaps and that outline how recognition benefits the bottom line — all integrated with real-time data to impact key business outcomes.

Offering greater freedom of choice

Making the rewards and experiences accessible online provide an expanded choice to employees to choose the experience according to their choice and interest. It also makes easy to add the latest products or experiences and keeping your reward catalogue up-to-date. Technology makes the redemption very easy for employees. They can redeem their experience online from anywhere at any time.

Easier tracking and reporting of recognition program success

These days an online recognition platform allows organizations to track the employee engagement score and correlate the use of recognition with performance. These help managers in making better decisions and doing improvements in the R&R program. With the help of technology, it is easy to collect the information and monitor the progress of employees.

Allowing flexibility in response to changing needs

In these dynamic times, you need a recognition program that can adjust to the changing needs and priorities of your organization. Organizations need to develop R&R solutions according to the company culture, policies, core values and many more. It needs to be customized according to the demand and situation and by using technology we can do this.

Consolidating recognition efforts, budgets, and administration

Most companies strive to consolidate their recognition and reward programs across the organization (recognition done geographically or by department, ad hoc rewards, and all other incentives) into a single overarching system. An online recognition platform allows for greater effectiveness, coordination, administration, and tracking, and leads to reduced redundancy, waste, and administration costs to the organization.

Trend of e-performance & e-recognition

Today SMARTT mean SMART goals using Technology.

E-performance system is a competency-based system that measures people not only on the goal attainment but also on the competencies that are required for their job. The competency library and ratings are stored in the respective profiles of each and every employee so that accordingly task and duties can be assigned to them. Through this way, succession planning and career development planning can be done easily. Technology has enabled HR to engage, inspire and motivate their employees online at anytime from anywhere.

As per WorldatWork report, 89% of organizations are providing rewards and recognition to their employees. The organizations today are connecting with the companies providing online R&R and employee engagement solutions and 69% of communication regarding recognition programs is through technology only. These programs are showing a positive result on employee engagement (68%), motivation (62%) and satisfaction (70%).

Today's generation expects technology to be easy to use. Anything complex is a complete turn off. Most organizations need to connect with their employees on a regular basis to keep them abreast of things within the organization and around it. So, it is essential to use technology and make your R&R solutions more impactful.